Netflix streaming service recently added David Fincher’s 2007 film Zodiac, which follows the reporting and investigation of the unsolved murders in Northern California by the self-proclaimed Zodiac, mainly through the perspective of Robert Graysmith played by Jake Gyllenhaal. The film is a craft fully produced vision into the hysteria of the Zodiac Killer that engulfs its audience into the tension and clawing desperation for the truth to be revealed. However, instead of just flat out reviewing it I instead opted to play the movies game and do some digging and research of my own. Initially I thought I would research about the history of the Zodiac Killer and what actually happened in comparison to the film’s depiction of things and that’s not what happened. To the films credit it gets it right for the most part with only minor discrepancies from the actual events that took place. I had already committed to the investigation, and along the way I discovered the continuation of the zodiac story line, how the mystery has unfolded over the decades that have passed since the events of the film took place.

David Fincher

Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

So, I’m going to mainly focus on the Zodiac case but because I kind of get my David Fincher and David Lynch mixed up occasionally, just consider this a bonus. David Fincher is possibly the greatest filmmaker of our generation or at least safe to say one of the greatest. If your unaware of impressive resume, here it is: Gone Girl, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Social Network, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Fight Club and Se7en. This is quite frankly an amazing list of films that I’m sure you’re having a hard time denying you haven’t found at least one of his films interesting. However, if you search deeper down Fincher’s IMDb page you’ll find that he like a few other directors started out on music videos rather than films. Fincher was able flaunt his style directing iconic music videos that includes working with artists such as: Aerosmith (Janie’s Got a Gun), Madonna (Vogue), even the late great George Michael (Freedom! ’90). David Fincher has certainly established himself as a staple of creative media, and I think that’s pretty cool… know it’s time to talk about murder.

The Truth is out There

I would encourage you to watch the film as it does cover most of the events that regard the hysteria created by the Zodiac. However, that was quite a long time ago. Decades have past from the release of Graysmith’s book entitled Zodiac which inspired the film and without spoiling it takes us to where the film ends. The Zodiac has not been a secret lost in time and in fact has still grown throughout the years as the internet is filled with theorist on the matter and more and more seems to emerge on possible suspects as the years separate themselves from the events that took place. Here are some of the post film suspects that are out there.

Earl Van Best Jr.

Courtesy: HistoryvsHollywood.com

Well, Robert Graysmith you have your book that discloses the true identity of the Zodiac Killer and Gary L. Stewart will have his. According to Gary Stewart’s co-authored book The Most Dangerous Animal Of All, not only does he state he has evidence of who the Zodiac was but that he himself is the son of the Zodiac. Gary L Stewart released his book in 2014 that put to rest that his father without a shadow of a doubt must of been the Zodiac, but instead of modern day technological innovations his book has not used them and instead provides a new suspect with the historical evidence. The newly discovered revelation relies on Best’s divorce documents, interpretations of the ciphers, and the uncanny resemblance Best has to the police sketch (Seen above). Still, Stewart’s book is not without its skeptics and admittedly there’s some flawed logic with the cipher mapping in Stewart’s research. Stewart rather than solving the cipher message argues that the symbols feature all the letters in the name Earl Van Best Jr. even completing the 13-symbol cipher that the Zodiac gave allegedly revealing his name. Yet, zodiackillerciphers.com was not having it with Stewart revealing the Zodiac with this tactic of debunking that at least “170,000” are possible through this method of “decoding” or rather lack thereof. Using the searching gadget on this site even my first name came up in multiple forms but not my last name… so I guess I’m not the Zodiac Killer. At this point, anything is possible but I think there’s reasonable flaws with the indisputable evidence provided by Stewart’s book.

Louie Myers

Courtesy: NY Daily News

Also introduced in 2014, Randy Kenney told news that his friend Louie Myers confessed on his deathbed when he told Kenney the truth… in 2002. Twelve years later Kenney decided that the people have to know. The evidence provided to support the confession include: Myers coincidence relationships with the victims going to the same high school, the coincidence of his father owning a military surplus store, and him allegedly being stationed in Germany during the Zodiac’s mysterious grace period. Tom Voigt, owner/operator of the site zodiackiller.com is not a fan of the Myers conspiracy calling it worse than the aforementioned previous hoaxes. Voight isn’t buying into the teenage version of the Zodiac Killer which is the major discredit to this theory and Voight even gives insight of past experience with Randy Kenney who he found very uncooperative. There’s little to either confirm or deny the idea of Louie Myers as the Zodiac but as it stands nothing about Myers is substantial to finally close this case. Voight in his interview endorsed one new suspect that being Richard Gaikowski.

Richard Gaikowski

Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

Tom Voight gave credibility to “Goldcatcher” theorist Blaine Blaine, who has been building a heavy case file against Gaikowski. There’s an entire timeline that links Gaikowski to on the path of the Zodiac and the damning evidence includes: His newspaper job being responsible for the weekend killings, similar appearance to the police sketch, the appearance of G-Y-K-E in one of the ciphers and the police operator, Nancy Slover allegedly identifying Gaikowski’s voice the most similar to the voice of the Zodiac. It appears that Blaine is overzealous about solving this case and while impressively extensive, lacks hard evidence to either solve the case or challenge Arthur Leigh Allen as the prime suspect.

Then we finally found him…The Zodiac Killer

Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

Ted Cruz

Here my friends is your Zodiac Killer. The main reason people are quick to debunk the radical theory is the small minute detail that the first Zodiac killing was committed 2 years prior to Ted Cruz’s birth. I say start them early but this is an inadequate way to denounce this theory as here me out. What is the one trait we associate with Ted Cruz, that sir is found in the Donald Trump coined nickname “Lyin’ Ted”. With that in mind, who is to say that Ted Cruz is not just lying about his actual birth date. Remember there is a 13 symbol Cipher identifying the name of the Zodiac well how many letters are there in “Theodore Cruz”. It’s twelve don’t worry I can count and it’s possible that one symbol is dedicated to a space in-between names or a dummy symbol to add a complexity to ensure it went unsolved. Okay so, back to reality Cruz as the Zodiac is probably untrue. This all started with this tweet that has no context to make it authentic evidence for anything. This joke spurred out of control when a polling company who has been known for absurd questioning decided to poll Florida the bizarre question of you guessed it “Is Ted Cruz the Zodiac Killer?”. The yielded results are perfectly described as this:

“Finally we find that 38% of Florida voters think it’s possible that Ted Cruz is the Zodiac Killer. 10% say he for sure is, and another 28% say that they are just not sure. Cruz is exonerated from being a toddler serial killer by 62% of the Sunshine State populace.”

Maybe Florida residents know something we don’t know but honestly, I doubt everyone took this poll at face value. I’m not sure if it’s more concerning that we don’t take our serial murders seriously or our active politicians seriously. Either way I don’t mind letting the people have their fun.

Courtesy Wikimedia Commons

I conclude that with essential the numerous claims that have come forth and endless stream of suspects the Zodiac’s identity is concealed in a similar fashion to Spartacus. I think as more distance grows between us and the events that transpired it grows forever impossible for everyone to reach a consensus on who the actual killer was. The mysterious has certainly alluded us all and that’s why it’s so interesting. Some of us just like a good puzzle to solve, some like the creepy and psychological aspects of a mind so hauntingly tortured. If this interests you then Fincher’s Zodiac is not a bad place to start in order to get the low down on the events that transpired. If your one for trying to solve a good puzzle maybe you should take a look at the unsolvable ciphers, give it a shot and who knows maybe you’ll be surprised by what you find.